Hansard

Presiding Officer, members of the Parliament, ladies and gentlemen, muli bwanji and good afternoon. It is a pleasure to lead this debate on behalf of the Scottish Government. We are here to celebrate 10 years of the relationship that began when the co-operation agreement between the Scottish Government and the Government of Malawi was signed, but we all know without any hesitation that the relationship goes much deeper and is of much longer standing than that.

Every one of us knows the stories of arguably our greatest ever Scot, Dr David Livingstone, and his journeys throughout sub-Saharan Africa. What touches any of the members who have been to Malawi is the knowledge that people in that country have of Dr Livingstone and how much they still revere him, 156 years since he took his first steps in Malawi.

I do not know too much about David Livingstone—certainly not as much as some of the aficionados in the chamber—but I know that he is many things to many people. Many people view him as a great medic, as he undoubtedly was. Many people view him as a great explorer, as he undoubtedly was, looking for the source of the Zambezi river. Many others view him as a missionary; that was his primary role in Malawi, but perhaps the less said about that, the better, because he converted only one person, who ended up becoming what some might call a lapsed Christian.

David Livingstone was a missionary to some, a doctor to some and an explorer to others but the way that I view him, and the way that I think he will be most remembered, is as a humanitarian. He campaigned against the abhorrent slave trade of the time. He believed in commerce as a route out of the slave trade and in the ideals of civilisation, which meant that we were able to overcome whatever global challenges faced us as a common humanity.

As well as the historic, I am very proud of the contemporary contribution that Scotland has made in partnership with Malawi and of the benefit that Malawi has given to Scotland. Credit where credit is due: it was Lord McConnell—then First Minister Jack McConnell—who signed the co-operation agreement with then President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi in Bute house. We reflected on that last week when, in Bute house again 10 years on, the current First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, hosted a number of Malawian delegates and diplomats and people who had been involved in the relationship.

Over those 10 years, the international development fund has moved on. It now applies not only to Malawi but to seven countries throughout the world and has disbursed £80 million. However, Malawi is the primary relationship—the jewel in the crown. Over those 10 years, £55 million of funding has gone to projects that have had a huge impact. Hundreds of projects have been supported but, if I were asked what the primary success of the relationship between Scotland and Malawi is, I would say without doubt that it has been the people-to-people relationship that has been cemented up and down the country.

In that vein, it would be wrong for me to continue without thanking the people who have been involved in that people-to-people relationship. Parliamentarians have been at the forefront of that. Many of the parliamentarians whom I see in the chamber have been to Malawi to help to cement those relationships, but they would be the first to acknowledge that the relationships have grown organically from the grass roots of the communities.

I thank the Scotland Malawi Partnership and its mirror organisation, the Malawi Scotland Partnership, and the chairs and chief executives who have been involved in them—David Hope-Jones, who is the chief executive, and the chairman, the Rev Ken Ross, of the Scotland Malawi Partnership; and their counterparts, Andrew Namakhoma and Happy Makala—for all the work that they have done.

It is inspiring and enlightening that I can go up, down and across Scotland—from the south to the north and from the east to the west—and find somebody who is involved in a relationship with Malawi. They are from all different sectors—doctors, nurses, teachers, school pupils, politicians and many others in between.

Partnership, co-operation and collaboration are key words in the relationship between our two nations. They were important in the millennium development goals and they are important in the current sustainable development goals. Many members will know the famous anti-apartheid slogan, “What is about us without us is not for us.” That very much cements the ethos with which we take forward the relationship between Scotland and Malawi. The priorities of the Malawi Government and the people of Malawi become the priorities of the Scottish Government, too, and, indeed, of the non-governmental organisations that carry out the good work. That is guided by the co-operation agreement. The two Governments come together regularly and go through the agreement line by line, to discuss what is best for the relationship moving forward.

I pay tribute to the NGOs and partners that have been involved in the relationship, which has been hugely successful over the 10 years. I have had a look at some of the key achievements. There are too many to mention all of them, but I will mention some of the highlights. We have provided 140,000 seriously ill children with emergency triage and referral for treatment of meningitis. We have saved thousands of lives of mothers and their babies through numerous maternal healthcare projects. We have improved access to energy for more than 80,000 Malawians through our flagship Malawi renewable energy acceleration programme. I visited the college of medicine, Malawi’s only medical school. The Scottish Government has funded projects there with a combined worth of more than £2.4 million, through which medical academics and professionals have assisted in increasing the annual rate of medical graduates from 16 to more than 100. In addition, we have established Malawi’s first ever clinical masters degree in psychiatry. Those are great achievements that will have a profound effect not just for the current period but for years and generations to come. We should be proud of playing a part in those achievements.

In the end, the statistics are just statistics. Those of us who have visited Malawi and those of us who have had delegations from Malawi understand that there is a human story behind every single one of those statistics. I could recall and recount plenty, but one in particular comes to mind. When I visited Malawi for the first time in 2014, it was great to hear that, as a result of a solar project that we had helped to fund at a healthcare centre in a village near Mount Mulanje, for the first time a woman in the village had given birth under a light. It was amazing that until then women had been giving birth in the dark. That woman was the first woman in her village to give birth under a light, and that was through the generosity of Scots. There are many other human stories like that that help us to realise the great impact that we have made in the relationship over the past 10 years.

While I was in Malawi, I had the great pleasure of meeting the current President, Peter Mutharika. We discussed much around the aid project and the development programme. It is important to mention that he touched on the importance of trade. From our perspective, as we take the relationship to the next stage, trade will be an important part. Every time I go to Malawi, people ask us about trade. They say that they do not want to rely on aid or development assistance but want to rely on their own capabilities, capacity, intellects, hard work and endeavour. They want to be able to create jobs, wealth and an ecosystem that sustains them. I welcome Labour’s amendment, in which the important word is “sustainable”. Sustainability is what the President talked about.

We have a historic legacy as Scots. One of the very first European businesses to set up shop in Malawi was the African Lakes Corporation. The company was set up by two brothers, John and Frederick Moir, and its headquarters were in Glasgow. The company went on to be known as the Mandala corporation, because one of the brothers wore glasses and “mandala” means “glasses” in Chichewa. His brother had a walking stick. The word for walking stick is “kandodo”, and a chain of Kandodo supermarkets now runs through Malawi. We have a historic legacy of trade with Malawi that has existed since the 19th century. We still have a trade relationship with Malawi in modern times.

I visited Mary’s Meals, as many other members have done, and I was blown away by the project. It feeds 800,000 children in Malawi and 1 million children across the world every day. One important place that I got to see was the food-processing plant, which employs 2,000 local people in Malawi. We can perhaps do more to build on that.

There is plenty more to say, but I will develop those themes and some other themes in summing up.

Our sustainable development goals command us to build partnerships with the developing world in the next 10 years. The challenge for us is to ensure that the Scotland-Malawi relationship is sustainable and fit for the modern world. The partnership that all of us, and civic society in particular, have created and fostered in the past 10 years is a great model for other countries to look at in their development work.

We should all be very proud. I am pleased that we are celebrating that success, and I look forward to an insightful and encouraging debate. I will be pleased to hear what members are doing in their own constituencies. My thanks go to the people of Scotland, civic society, parliamentarians and everyone who has been involved in making the Scotland-Malawi relationship a success over the past 10 years.

I move,

That the Parliament notes both that the tenth anniversary of the signing of the historic cooperation agreement between the governments of Scotland and Malawi was reached on 3 November 2015 and the continuing strength of this relationship; further notes that this agreement marked the beginning of the Scottish Government’s International Development Programme, which now works in seven countries in the developing world; believes that, as a good global citizen, Scotland should continue to prioritise its international development work; recognises the contribution of the Scottish development sector and the Scotland Malawi Partnership, in particular their work with partners in Malawi, and the many Scots and Scottish organisations who, over the last 10 years, strengthened these links with Malawi and Scotland’s other priority countries through their hard work and enthusiasm and have given their time and support so generously; commends the work of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and MSPs through their continued work with the Malawi National Assembly, and looks forward to the Scottish Parliament and Government and the people of Scotland working together with the country’s domestic and overseas partners toward the delivery of the new global United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which will become applicable from January 2016.